Sliding cover prevents fuelling accidents

. According to the AA, around 120,000 people accidentally fill their cars with the wrong type of fuel every year in the UK. Eaton’s system – for both petrol and diesel vehicles – includes an axially sliding environmental cover that replaces the traditional twist cap and a simple spring-loaded main sealing door. In the case of a petrol-powered vehicle, the user introduces the filler nozzle through a V-shaped gate so that its tip engages with the environmental cover and slides it open. It then pushes down into the filler pipe, opening the sealing door in the process. The user of a diesel vehicle follows the same procedure, having introduced the nozzle into a V-gate sized for diesel filler systems. When the nozzle is withdrawn both the main sealing door and environmental cover return to their closed positions. Clearly a diesel nozzle will not fit through the nozzle gate designed for petrol powered vehicles, preventing accidents. In the case of a diesel filler system, the narrower petrol nozzle cannot not engage with the environmental cover and passes clean through its wider grooved upper surface, leaving it closed. Modern diesels are highly sensitive to any contamination, which is why Eaton designed a system in which it is impossible even to discharge the wrong fuel into the filler neck area. The discrimination device is entirely on the outside. Emergency filling from, say, a can is easy because the override is simply to manually slide open the environmental door. The system meets emission (LEV and PZEV) and safety requirements for nozzle discrimination. The steel filler tube interface and self-wiping seals meet PZEV requirements and the whole system is adaptable to the specific needs of individual vehicle OEMs.